Renny Harlin Takes Helm Of Jackie Chan Action Comedy ‘Skiptrace’

Cliffhanger and Long Kiss Goodnight helmer Renny Harlin has been tapped to direct the Jackie Chan buddy action comedy Skiptrace following the departure of previously announced director Sam Fell (Paranorman).

Chan is set to star opposite Seann William Scott and X-Men: Days Of Future Past‘s Fan Bingbing in the tale of a Hong Kong detective (Chan) who teams up with a mouthy American gambler (Scott) to save his niece and take down the city’s most notorious criminal. Dasym Entertainment and Beijing-based Talent International Film are co-financing and co-producing the vehicle, which was first scripted by Jay Longino from Chan’s original idea. The Sitter scribes Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka did a rewrite ahead of the project’s Cannes presentation last year, and since then Geoff Moore and David Posamentier (Grandma’s Intergalactic Bed & Breakfast, Food Fight) and BenDavid Grabinski (Machinima’s Enormous) have also contributed revisions.

Meanwhile, Harlin’s coming off January’s Kellan Lutz-starrer The Legend Of Hercules and is set to begin production in August in various exotic locales in China. Skiptrace also notably has approval as a co-production by China’s State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) – not a shocker given that it stars the country’s biggest living action icon as well as Chinese superstar Fan. Bloom is currently handling sales in Cannes. Harlin’s repped at UTA. Screen Daily was first to report the project update today.